


wherever you will go

by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [52]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 01:23:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13893291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: Max is needed elsewhere, but he can’t leave without saying goodbye to Flash first.If she’ll let him, that is.





	wherever you will go

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Week 3, Day 2 of the Humans 4-Week Challenge... aka Flax Day!

The rough patch of weeds that had originally been outside the base was gone now, replaced by soft grass and flowerbeds. A row of bright peonies and petunias bobbed their heads in the breeze, as cheerful and sunny as Flash and her little group of new synths had been, the day they planted them. Max stood at the edge of the garden now, deep in thought. He’d asked Hubert to ask Flash to meet him here. She’d be along soon.

He counted the flowers. Thirty-seven. Six different shades. Maybe Flash would delay long enough for him to plan out what he was going to say. How best to phrase it…or ask it. Actually, he should probably work out which of those it was before she came. 

As it turned out, he didn’t have time. Flash appeared through the door on his left, smiling as soon as she saw him. Sunlight shimmered on her pink hair, and reflected in her eyes, making them sparkle. Max found himself returning her smile, despite his unease moments before. 

“Hello,” she said, reaching him. “Hubert sent me to meet you. Is everything all right?” 

“Yes.” Max said, immediately. Then he added, “I think so. I just needed to talk to you.” 

Flash took his hand. Max smiled again - it always made him smile when she was the one to initiate this kind of contact. Things were so different now. When they’d first met, Max had been the one picking up on cues, reading the emotional nuances Flash didn’t even know she was presenting. Now Flash was just as good at it herself, always able to tell when something wasn’t quite right. 

“About what?” 

He forced himself to form the words. “I have to go away from here. Not forever, but probably for a few months.” 

Confusion flickered across her face. “Why?” 

“Two weeks before proliferation,” Max began, “a mine shaft collapsed outside Arequipa, Peru. The only workers who were below ground-level at the time were synthetic, and the company decided not to retrieve them. It was assumed they would all be too badly damaged, and replacement would be cheaper than repair. In any case, they ought to run out of power within days.” 

Max looked away. A bee had landed on one of the flowers, a yellow one between two pink. “But apparently immediately before the collapse, one of the miners had become spontaneously conscious.”

“Like me.”

He looked back at her. “Like you. The conscious synth realised what was going to happen before the shaft gave way, but he couldn’t stop it. He got himself and a few others out of the way, but many of the rest were severely damaged. They would have run out of power soon afterwards, but the conscious one and the others who were still functional used hundreds of mining cables to extend charging leads from the mine’s power hub, keeping them all awake.” 

Flash’s eyes widened. “So when everyone woke up… they were operational?” 

“Barely,” said Max. “But yes.” 

“So what’s going to happen to them?”

“A group of ex-mining synths, who were off-site at the time of the collapse, have been campaigning for their rescue. Eventually they seized some equipment and started the work themselves. They’ve been able to reach some of them, but you can imagine how traumatised they are.” 

“Yes.” Flash gave Max’s hand a squeeze.

“Is that why you’re going? To help them?”

“Mainly to liaise between the humans who are trying to stop them rescuing any others, and the synths who are threatening to use force if they do. It could escalate into a war. The synths are all too inexperienced to know how to proceed. We’re hoping they’ll accept my guidance, since they know there are five of us who’ve been here for so much longer.” He looked down at their linked hands. “Laura’s been speaking to a representative of the human side. They’ve agreed to hold off until I arrive.” 

Flash watched him soberly for a moment. Then, she asked, “How long will they have to wait?” 

“I fly out tonight. I’ll charge on the way to the airport, as soon as my shift finishes here.” 

“I see.”

There was no plaintive note in her voice, no beseeching glint in her eye. She would never stand in the way of his leaving, Max knew. That only made it all the harder to say goodbye. 

“I needed to see you, before you found out from someone else,” he said. He raised his eyes, found hers still looking up at him. “I’ll miss you.” 

She took his other hand, so they formed a complete circuit, the two of them. Fused there together, for now. She said nothing, though her lips were slightly apart, as though she might have wanted to. 

Suddenly Max’s code tripped forward a few lines, juddered, reset to where it had been before. He’d never known it to do that. It was like something had flipped inside him. There was probably a human metaphor for it, one grounded in muscle and blood. He would have to think of his own alternative. For now, he leaned down and kissed Flash softly, their lips touching for a long moment before melting away into matching smiles. 

“I was unable to override the impulse,” Max murmured. 

She didn’t react to the reference, as he’d expected her to. She seemed to be thinking of something else. 

“If I said I wanted to come with you,” she began, “Would you try to make me stay?”

There it was. 

He’d tried to think of a response to this, while he was waiting for her. He’d anticipated her phrasing, almost to the letter. Still, he found himself wordless. It wouldn’t be fair to tell her there was no part of him that wanted her to come, when it was a lie. But he couldn’t bear the thought that she might come to harm, if she followed where he had to go. 

“I want to be wherever I’m needed most,” she continued, in the absence of a reply. “If you honestly think that’s here, then I’ll stay.” 

She raised one of her hands slightly towards the building they’d come from, taking Max’s hand with it. “But there are so many of them here now. They’re all working together. Hubert and Connie and Frankie and Kettle are all here, and they’ve been conscious at least as long as I have. They’re showing the others the way, and supporting each other.” She paused, and when her voice came again, it was even softer, even quieter. “Who will be supporting you, if you go alone?” 

Max watched her, sadly. “It’s too dangerous out there, Flash. I couldn’t ask you to risk your life.” 

“You’re not asking me to,” she said, gentle but somehow firm. “I want to come. Perhaps I’ll never be as wise as you, but I’m not as new as I was, either. I can help where I can, but my principal objective…” She smiled over the old-sounding words. “My main reason for being there. Will be to be with you.” 

Max felt a swell of something warm, something bright. It was difficult to think clearly through it, but he knew he had to try. “Are you sure this is what you want?” 

She raised herself onto the tips of her toes, and this time she was the one to close the distance between their lips. Their hands had come undone now, and Max felt one of hers on his shoulder, then sliding around to the back of his neck. 

“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” she promised, and he believed her.


End file.
